


Quote from Man Stabbed

by Katerie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bringing the team together AU, Canon-Typical Violence, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, He was raised by the Galra but doesn't look any different, Keith likes stabbing things, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-03-29 17:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13931775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katerie/pseuds/Katerie
Summary: "What are you gonna do, stab me?"





	1. In Which Lance has an interesting way of inviting Keith to join the team

Their target was in Coran’s words, “an wee little prison ship with an outdated design,” which basically meant it was completely defenseless against any Altean technology. It was clearly nothing much to the empire. It was only holding prisoners as collateral to control the inhabitants of a nearby planet that was a convenient, although not really necessary, intergalactic pitstop for refueling.

 

However, when Voltron received their distress call, begging them to save their families, the Defenders of the Universe couldn’t very well refuse, especially when they were trying to build a base of support against the Galra Empire. Especially when they needed all the support they could get when they were short a red paladin and a red lion and so couldn’t actually form Voltron.

 

According to the blueprints Coran pulled up, there were only two wings for holding prisoners, but those two combined didn’t look big enough to hold the number of prisoners supposedly on board, and Galra engineers on backwater ships were notorious for modifying their ships out of sheer boredom, so there were probably some extra prisoner hidey holes somewhere. Shiro and Hunk were going to the two known prisoner wings while Pidge was busy trying to get into the processing core of the ship to look for information on her family on the off chance there was a common server for different prison ships to share.

 

So that was how Lance found himself scouting the ship, looking for any additional prisoners they might have missed while and sniping down sentries.

 

He listened to Hunk and Shiro’s comm lines as they broke into the cells and told people they were going to be free. Sometimes the rescuees were so excited Lance could hear their shouts even through their insulated helmets. Other times, Lance couldn’t hear anything and listened as Hunk and Shiro told them, no, they weren’t lying, they didn’t have to be afraid‒they really could leave.  Lance decided he wasn’t that jealous of them‒he did love rescuing people, but he was also a little tired of trying to coax people into believing they could hope again. He’d let Shiro and Hunk take their turns with that, and he’d take out his frustrations at how many people’s lives had been destroyed by shooting down sentries. A lot of sentries. In fact, it seemed like the ship was almost completely manned by sentries.

 

“Hey Coran, are there even any Galra on this ship or is just completely automated?”

 

“A ship this old is definitely not automated, my boy. This old girl probably has too many quirks to be handled by robots. If you haven’t met anyone yet, I’d say the crew has realized what’s happening and has decided to keep us occupied with sentries while they beat a hasty retreat.”

 

“I’m with Coran on this one,” Shiro’s voice came through the comm, “I haven’t met anyone other than sentries, and I haven’t exactly been quiet taking them out. If someone was going to try to stop us, they should have done something by now.”

 

“Yeah, same over here,” said Hunk, “I’m starting to think this mission might be nice and simple. Which would be a nice change.”

 

“Hate to break it to you, Hunk, but I’m not sure I agree. There was someone trying to keep me out of the computer system. Not very well, and obviously I got in anyway, but I don’t think we should let our guard down yet. If they thought it was worth the effort to try to keep me out, they might also think it’s worth the effort to fight you guys over the hostages.”

 

Hunk wailed, “Oh come on!” in the background while Lance answered, “Alright! If you guys haven’t met anyone, then I guess that means they must be wherever the last batch of prisoners is. Don’t worry everyone‒I’ll find them and take them out!”

 

“Lance, be careful, and if there’s more than one guard, wait for one of us to come help you. I know it’s been an easy mission so far, but don’t get cocky,” said Shiro, going into full protective leader mode.

 

“Yeah, yeah Shiro don’t worry. I’m sure I can handle whoever’s still on board.” Lance shot two more sentries through the head and got in a sweet ricochet shot to prove his point, even if the rest of the team couldn’t actually see that. It boosted his confidence and that was all that really mattered.

 

* * *

 

Keith was livid. And Outraged. And every other possible word for _pissed off_. He had just gotten command of a ship. Not the best ship, but important in its own way. It was his first chance to prove he could lead. And now he was under attack. By the Paladins of Voltron no less. Because nothing in his life could be easy. He’d already failed at keeping them out of the computers. He wasn’t going to let them succeed at freeing all the prisoners.

 

The rest of the crew had already taken the escape pods, _despite_ his orders to remain. Apparently, they didn’t think this ship was important enough for to guard with the usual “victory or death” ferocity. Apparently, newer ships had a big enough range they didn’t even need to stop at this planet to refuel. Apparently, this outpost was just a place to keep unimportant soldiers busy. Apparently they weren’t going to listen to some tiny punk who thought he could order them to stay.

 

Well, Keith would prove how “unimportant” he was. The empire probably wouldn’t think he was so unimportant if he stopped Voltron from completing their mission. Even better, if he captured one of the paladins, he would take them to Central Command and from there he could be assigned a better post and a higher command. 

 

So that was how Keith found himself guarding the extra prison annex, waiting for the paladins to arrive to take the hostages.

 

When Keith heard a metallic clang down the hall, he stopped his furious pacing and cursed his inferior hearing for the thousandth time in his life. His ears were way less sensitive than most Galra’s and they couldn’t even swivel. Which really sucked when he was listening for sounds of possible invaders. Luckily, whoever was coming appeared completely unconcerned whether he heard them coming or not.

 

He kept listening and heard the sounds of three more sentries dropping, although he didn’t hear anything before they fell. He scowled. No sounds of fighting suggested he was probably dealing with someone carrying a long-range laser‒about the worst match imagineable for his sword. Of course. He had just decided to charge and try to take the paladin by surprise when the Blue Paladin stepped into the intersection in front of Keith, casually swinging his gun on his finger, and looking more alike to Keith than anyone Keith had ever met.

 

They both had a moment of surprise, which is the only reason Keith didn’t take his chance to charge as soon as he saw his opponent. He’d always resented the fact that he looked nothing like the Galra. He’d never considered that if he looked nothing like the Galra, that meant he had to look exactly like his father’s species. Which was apparently the same species as the Blue Paladin. The Blue Paladin was still slightly taller than Keith (because the universe hated him), but he didn’t tower over him like other Galra did. He had the same hair and dull nails that Keith did, and most importantly the same sort of face.

 

Keith was watching his face as it shifted from surprise and confusion to appraisal before landing on acceptance. “Hey guys, Blue says we’ve found the Red Paladin. I could use some help getting him though.”

 

Hearing him call for backup reminded Keith that he was supposed to be fighting the paladin, especially if the Red Paladin was among the prisoners he was guarding. He got down into an offensive stance and tried to figure out the best way to attack him without getting shot and without killing him. He wanted a captive to take back to Central Command, not a corpse.

 

The Blue Paladin’s face once again changed expression, this time to amusement. He leaned his gun back against his shoulder, pointing it toward the ceiling while lowering his left arm, leaving himself completely open to attack. “Look, I don’t know what they did to convince you to you’re a Galran guard, but I’d really rather not fight you.”

 

Keith’s perpetual scowl only deepened. “I _am_ a Galran guard and if you want these prisoners, you’re going to _have_ to fight me.”

 

He sighed. “Come on, man. There are three other paladins on board right now, not to mention an Altean warship backing us up. You’re not going to win, so why not just surrender?”

 

Keith was getting really tired of people condescendingly telling him he was going to lose. “There is no surrender. Victory or death,” he recited, and raised his sword.

 

That made the paladin lower his gun so it was once again pointing at Keith, but he still didn’t seem all that concerned. “You know this is a gun right? You’re never gonna get close enough to use your sword.” When Keith didn’t reply, he rolled his eyes. “What are you gonna do, stab me?”

 

Well, with an invitation like that….


	2. In Which Pidge wonders how Lance has lived this long

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now for some perspectives from Lance and Pidge.  
> I changed the rating to T because of a bit of swearing. I've been at college too long and no longer know what is considered acceptable swearing.

When Lance saw another human on board, he was very, very confused. Especially since said human was wearing Galran armor and holding a Galran sword. And guarding a door that looked like it might have prisoners behind it while glaring for all he was worth. How did he get here? Was he abducted like Shiro had been? But then why was he a guard? What was Lance supposed to do to him? Un-brainwash him so he wouldn’t be a guard anymore? How would he do that? Shoot him in the foot and drag him back to the Castle? or something?

 

Adding to his confusion was the sense of _need_ he got from Blue as soon as Lance laid eyes on him. Which was insulting if nothing else. Why would she want him when she had Lance? What made Shorty over there any better than him? Blue pushed aside his indignation and redirected Lance’s mind to a memory. He was reminded of a time he saw a necklace he _needed_ to get his sister for her quinceañera. Oh.

 

So, she didn’t want Mullet as her pilot‒she wanted him for… the red lion? She smothered his rising skepticism with her own absolute certainty that her sister would _love_ Angry Sword Boy over there. Lance sized him up. If Blue wanted him, that meant he couldn’t be that bad of a person. Besides, who was he to argue with a giant robotic lion?

 

 He opened his comm link and said, “Hey guys, Blue says we’ve found the Red Paladin. I could use some help getting him though.” Judging by the guard’s unmoving scowl, he would need some help to subdue him without actually hurting him too bad.

 

Hunk and Shiro started to tell Lance to wait just a little longer while they finished dropping off the prisoners somewhere safe when Pidge said, “Don’t worry, guys. I’ll go help Lance. You just finish getting the prisoners to the Castle and come help us when you’re done.” 

 

Lance tried to figure out a way to stall until Pidge was closer. He really didn’t want to have a long, drawn-out fight be his first interaction with his future teammate after all.

 

In that spirit, he relaxed Lance posture and sent him a friendly smile despite the way he was eying him like he was trying to figure out a plan of attack. Lance said, “Look, I don’t know what they did to convince you to you’re a Galran guard, but I’d really rather not fight you.”

 

All he got in response was an even more impressive scowl as he said, “I _am_ a Galran guard and if you want these prisoners, you’re going to _have_ to fight me.”

 

He sighed. Poor kid was definitely brainwashed. “Come on, man. There are three other paladins on board right now, not to mention an Altean warship backing us up. You’re not going to win, so why not just surrender?”

 

That turned out to be a very wrong thing to say. His eyes flashed angrily, and he growled out, “There is no surrender. Victory or death.”

 

The ferocity in his voice made Lance snap his gun back into a ready position, even though he was still hesitant to shoot him. In a last-ditch appeal to logic he was pretty sure this guy didn’t have, Lance said, “You know this is a gun, right? You’re never gonna get close enough to use your sword.”

 

No response.

 

Lance rolled his eyes in exasperation. Was this guy for real? “What are you gonna do, stab me?”

 

Something in his opponent snapped and he lunged forward. Lance was caught in a moment of indecision‒should he actually shoot his future teammate? Where would be a good non-lethal place? He was really good at making himself a small targe‒

 

Lance’s thoughts screeched to a halt when the guard put on a burst of speed and pierced his boot to stab his foot. “Motherfucker! You actually stabbed me!”

 

He danced away before Lance could use his gun as a blunt force weapon and smirked. “You did ask for it. Now that you can’t run away I suggest _you_ surrender. I’m taking you to Central Command so Emperor Zarkon can decide what to do with you.” Most what he said was drowned out by shouts of concern from his teammates flooding the commlink, but he did hear something about Zarkon, which was never good.

 

 Lance let his shoulders deflate in defeat. When the guard stepped forward to take his gun, he quickly took aim and shot him in the foot, mainly out of spite. The guard hissed in pain and hopped backwards. “Sorry, buddy, but I’m really not interested in meeting Zarkon.”

 

He yelled back, “It’s _Emperor_ Zarkon, and I don’t really care if you’re interested or not!” He did a funny little charge that wasn’t quite hopping but was pretty close, and Lance laughed while also not quite hopping backwards down the hallway to keep some distance between them. He summoned his shield so if the guard did get close enough he wouldn’t have to resort to shooting him again. The shield made him stop advancing in favor of just glaring at Lance.

 

While he glared, Pidge’s whisper came through the commlink. “Lance, I’m just around the corner from you guys. Keep him facing towards you so I can sneak up on him.” Lance figured he could do that easily enough. He smirked and took another half hop backwards.

 

 The guard ground out, “Look, you’re not going to be able to get anywhere with that foot‒”

 

Lance laughed and said, “You’re not going to get anywhere with your foot either! And my legs are longer than yours, so I’ll probably be able to get farther than you!”

 

The guard’s face flushed angrily. Apparently, Lance had hit a nerve. “Your legs aren’t that much longer! I’ve had to outrun people with much longer legs before.”

 

Considering how tall the Galra were, that was probably true, but Lance wasn’t feeling terribly sympathetic at the moment, so he just snorted. “And how many have you had to outrun while being shot in the foot, huh?”

 

“That doesn’t matter because you’re stabbed in the foot!”

 

Pidge threw him a thumbs up from behind his opponent. He grinned and put on a fake accent and shouted, “’Tis but a flesh wound!”

 

The look of complete bafflement on his face right before Pidge electrocuted him was priceless.

 

* * *

 

 

Pidge had already broken into the computer’s database and realized there was nothing helpful when Lance informed everyone he had found the Red Paladin and needed help. She immediately got up and started heading in Lance’s direction, telling the others to finish their jobs while she went to help Lance.

 

She was surprised when she heard Lance start talking again, this time to someone else. She had assumed there was more than one and Lance needed help freeing the Red Paladin from multiple guards. Instead, it sounded like there was just one and Lance didn’t want to fight him. Which was odd given how eager he had been to go fight earlier….unless the guard was supposed to be the Red Paladin? She wasn’t great at communicating with her lion, and never talked to it the way Lance seemed to talk to Blue, but she reached for their connection and tried to ask if the guard was supposed to join the team. All she got in response was a vague sense of agreement, but that was better than nothing.

 

She nodded and started to pay attention to Lance’s conversation again just in time to hear him goad the prison guard into stabbing him. She sighed at his stupidity. She was about to tell him why that was a bad idea when his shriek came back through the comms. “Motherfucker! You actually stabbed me!”

 

Pidge broke into a sprint. “You idiot! What did you think was going to happen?!” while Shiro and Hunk shouted to ask if he was okay. How was he so _stupid_ sometimes?! This was serious and a war and you couldn’t just say idiotic things to enemies…

 

Her panic died down a little when she heard Lance say, in a relatively normal voice, “Sorry, buddy, but I’m really not interested in meeting Zarkon.” It didn’t sound like he was fighting for his last breath, or like he was in desperate agony. So maybe it was a minor injury. Good. Pidge slowed down a little bit. According to her tracker, Lance should be right around the corner.

 

She heard shouting about “Emperor Zarkon” and figured that was the guard. She stopped at the corner and peaked, only to have to smother her laughter. It really wasn’t the time or place for it, and she knew it was mean to even want to laugh in this situation, but she couldn’t help it.  She watched the guard in front of hobble forward in what he no doubt meant to be a ferocious attack while Lance tried to back away and only barely managed to avoid tripping. She figured she should help.

 

Trying to keep the laughter out of her voice, she whispered, “Lance, I’m just around the corner from you guys. Keep him facing towards you so I can sneak up on him.” When Lance hopped backwards again, she activated her bayard and started walking silently towards the guard.

 

Pidge was almost impressed at his self-delusion when the guard started trying to convince Lance to surrender. Lance, in his typical fashion, just laughed and started teasing him about his height. He had a tendency to do that to anyone shorter than him, which was limited to her when they were in the Castle. She supposed having this guy as the Red Paladin might cut down on the number of short jokes she would have to endure, and the thought almost moved her to enough sympathy to try talking to him before she tazed him. Then again, he had already stabbed Lance. It would probably just be better to stab him and then apologize after some time in the healing pod.

 

She gave Lance a thumbs up to show she was ready to attack, knowing he would do something to ensure all the guard’s attention was him. It turned out that “something” was to give an obnoxious grin and yelled in an equally obnoxious accent, “’Tis but a flesh wound!”

 

She touched her weapon to the guard’s back and activated the electricity, then neatly stepped out of the way so he wouldn’t squish her when he fell. She realized a second later that maybe she should have tried to catch him instead of letting him fall if they were going to be teammates. Good thing he wouldn’t remember that bit.

 

Lance, meanwhile, was cackling.

 

She tried to keep her face deadpan while she said, “Monty Python? Really?” but she couldn’t really fight the smile on her face.

 

“Oh Pidge, I’m so sorry you couldn’t see his face! He was so confused. It was great,” Lance managed to say between bouts of laughter.

 

Shiro and Hunk chose that moment to jog around the corner. They had both heard all that had happened over the comms, but they both still relaxed a little when they saw Lance was still standing and not somehow managing to laugh while being fatally wounded. Hunk went over to Lance and engulfed him in a bear hug. “Bro, I know you like teasing people, but try to keep it to a minimum when those people are literally your enemy. It’s not going to end well one of these days.”

 

Lance snorted. “He’s not our enemy. Blue is totally convinced he’s the Red Paladin. She wasn’t even concerned when he stabbed me! She just kind of cooed over him the way people do when kittens tear their toys apart. I think it made her even more sure that Red would love him.”

 

Shiro looked at Lance critically and asked, “Speaking of being stabbed, where are you injured?”

 

Lance sheepishly stuck out his slightly bloody right foot and said, “It’s not too bad, but I definitely can’t walk on it right now.”

 

Hunk patted his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, man, I’ll carry you back to the Castle and we can stick you in a healing pod.” He paused and added meaningfully, “Again.”

 

Shiro nodded. “You _do_ need to learn to be more careful, Lance. I know the healing pods are amazing, but I think you’re getting a little too used to relying on them. One of these days one of us isn’t going to be around to help you and‒” he noticed Lance starting to deflate “‒and I just want to make sure you’re never hurt too badly for even a healing pod to fix.”

 

Lance relaxed a bit and smiled. “I know Shiro. And I’m working on training with the gladiator for close combat. I just haven’t gotten very good yet.”

 

Pidge, who had crouched down to take a closer look at the ex-guard future-Red Paladin, said, “Well maybe we can get this guy to help you out with that once we figure out what’s wrong with him.”

 

Shiro and Hunk looked at collapsed guard speculatively. Shiro glanced back at Lance and said, “You’re sure he’s the Red Paladin?”

 

“Blue definitely is. I figure she knows enough about what the Red lion would want that we can trust her.”

 

They all stood in a semi-circle staring at him in silence for a moment, each asking their lion for an opinion, before Shiro said, “Well, Allura and our rescued prisoners aren’t going to be happy about it, but they’ll just have to accept that.” He bent down and picked the guard up in a fireman carry while Hunk turned around to let Lance clamber onto his back. “Pidge, can you get that door open? Hunk and I have our hands full.”

 

Pidge nodded and said, “Sure I got this. I’ll meet you back on the ship.” Hunk and Shiro started to walk away and Lance chattered away to Hunk about the guard’s hair while she fried the door operating panel with her bayard. She then manually pried the door open and started convincing the prisoners they were free.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on that news headline (http://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/9/4/1/242941_v1.jpg)
> 
> So, Keith here was raised by the Galra, but still looks human. I'm just going with that's what his genetic complement was, so that's how he looks. Sure, maybe there could have been some sort of gene:environment interactions that would have made him look more Galran if he was raised in space, but I don't feel the need to acknowledge that possibility in a show that laughs in the face of science and has things like white holes.
> 
> EDIT-- Hey guys, my life has become much busier than I expected, and the Voltron fandom is tiring me out, so I'm just ending this fic at chap 2. Thanks for reading!


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